He is the tallest of Wollongong Hawks' tall timber and looms as a seven-foot X-factor in the club's bid for NBL supremacy.
Centre Tim Behrendorff might not be a starter, but his role off the bench is crucial to the Hawks' prospects of knocking out Townsville in the best-of-three semi-final series.
"He's playing with a lot of confidence and shooting the ball well," Hawks veteran Glen Saville said of Behrendorff.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks "He can pose problems for teams with his size and ability to stretch the floor out, and step out and shoot those threes and deep buckets."
Behrendorff showed off his underrated shooting touch in last Friday's win over Melbourne, scoring a season-high 10 points on 4/5 field goals, including 2/2 three-pointers.
He hit another three in the following night's over-time road win over Adelaide to boost his season tally to 8/15.
"I've been confident the whole season and (coach) Gordie (McLeod) always lets me know he has confidence in me," the 28-year-old Queenslander said.
"I feel like I've been shooting well lately, so I just come into each game with confidence and if I have the opportunity to take a few shots, I'll take them."
A knee injury kept Behrendorff out of Wollongong's opening three games of the season, but he made a full recovery and ended up averaging almost three points in 10 minutes during the regular season.
"He had a fantastic season in New Zealand and was coming in with a lot of confidence and his skill level was good. Then he got injured and missed about five weeks and that put him behind the eight-ball," McLeod said.
"He's really trained hard and patiently waited for his opportunities, and it's really pleasing to see him playing well and making the most of those opportunities."
The Hawks tip off their play-offs campaign with Friday night's opening game of the semi-final series at WIN Entertainment Centre.
Behrendorff said optimism in the Wollongong camp was high.
"It's a pretty exciting time. We can just go in there with nothing to lose and give it everything we've got," he said.
"We've won our last three now, so it's good to go in winning a few games, and finishing second and having the home court advantage in the semis is a fantastic bonus.
"People have been writing us off all season and we just keep proving them wrong. Everyone's playing well and we're playing well together as a team.
"We've done well to get where we are and now we just need to take advantage of this opportunity that we have.
"Home court advantage is massive for us and the crowd has been awesome. We can look forward to that support again on Friday."
The Hawks were 3-1 against the Crocodiles in the regular season and feel good about their chances of maintaining that edge.
"They beat us in the last game and played quite well. They came at us defensively and we have to prepare for that, but there's no reason why we can't get this one on Friday and see where it goes from there," Behrendorff said.
"We've had a sense of belief among ourselves the whole season and we'll just carry that through to the play-offs. We know we have a pretty good shot, so we'll give it a real good go and leave it all out on the floor."
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